Welcome to the Special Spring 2015 Edition of SHOOT’s Directors Series. Our mix of profiles includes: Ava DuVernay, lauded for her feature Selma (Paramount Pictures); Lisa Cholodenko, who won the DGA Award last month for the HBO miniseries Olive Kitteridge; Lesli Linka Glatter, another DGA winner for an episode of Showtime’s Homeland; and the directing duo The Mercadantes–Daniel and Katina Mercadante–who were nominated for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials.
Cholodenko and Glatter were two of four women to win DGA Awards in major categories this year (the others being Laura Poitras who topped the Documentary competition with Citizenfour; and Jill Soloway for Comedy Series on the basis of an episode of the Amazon show Transparent). And Katina Mercadante is one of only three women to receive a nomination in the DGA Commercials category since its inception in 1980.
Our lineup of profiles also includes: Nicolai Fuglsig who won this year’s DGA Award for his commercialmaking; and noted feature filmmakers who have successfully diversified into the spot/branded content space–Christopher Guest (Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind); Doug Liman (Go, Swingers, The Bourne Identity, Edge of Tomorrow); and the team of Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman (American Splendor, which earned them a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar nomination, and Ten Thousand Saints, which recently debuted at the Sundance Film Festival).
Meanwhile our lineup of promising, up-and-coming directorial talent includes: an accomplished agency creative director whose directorial touch came to the fore with a moving, thought-provoking PSA; a collective who made a splash with a “Speed Dating” viral for Ford Mustang; two brothers who as a directing duo have seen their spec work embraced by real-world clients; and a filmmaking trio who have earned plaudits for their feature documentary work and are poised to enter the advertising arena via a new company affiliation.
In our Cinematographers & Cameras Series, we meet an Oscar-winning (Life of Pi) DP who just finished a creative journey to Tomorrowland with director Brad Bird; an ASC Award winner last month for an episode of Boardwalk Empire (HBO), marking the fourth time in five years that he has garnered the coveted honor in a TV category; and a cinematographer who not only picked up his first career ASC Award for the pilot of the TV series Manhattan (WGN America) but also comes off a year which saw him lens St. Vincent (The Weinstein Company), which earned Golden Globe nominations for Best Motion Picture Comedy and Best Actor in a Comedy Series.
Also featured is coverage of last month’s DGA “Meet The Feature Nominees” session. Panelists were: Alejandro González Iñárritu who went on to win the coveted Guild Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) and the other four Guild nominees–Wes Anderson for The Grand Budapest Hotel; Clint Eastwood for American Sniper; Richard Linklater for Boyhood; and Morten Tyldum for The Imitation Game.
So read on and enjoy. As always, we welcome your feedback.
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More